Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The future of TV is being discussed by Arizona Republic columnist, Bill Goodykoontz, media analyst and TV critic. There is the usual "new technologies don't supplant old technologies' idea In theory, I support this, because it explains why we don't choose TV or the Web (for video) mobile phones or the internet (for phone calls), DVRs or YouTube etc.

Are we then really discussing the YouTube effect? Or the TiVo effect? Not just video on demand, but time-shifting, alternative media delivery, and --what doesn't get discussed much-- people's attention spans for riveting, relevant content.Speaking of which, I found 2 timely stories.Verizon phones to offer a YouTube service for phone users.UCLA lecturer teaches students to work on 'tiny screen'

The latter interests me because it is a collaboration between MTV and academia, to create/format content for the third screen as we call it. The MTV unit (mtvU) is funding the project.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

"It's said that if you put a million monkeys at a million typewriters, eventually you will get the works of William Shakespeare. When you put together a million humans, a million camcorders, and a million computers, what you get is YouTube."

Brilliant article by Bob Garfield simultaneously published in Ad Age and Wired. Garfield's homage to YouTube, is an indepth analysis of what's happening to broadcast (a "spiraling vortex of ruin"), Hollywood, and Madison Avenue. Even Regis Philbin! But's it's also about what could happen to the golden goose that is sometimes derisively called Goo-Tube.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

The idea that 'Me TV' would overtake 'Must-see TV' is getting closer, it seems, with the TiVo fix. It's part of the new broadband-enhanced package where people can create or download videos on their computer, andmake them available to their friends who also use TiVo.

It works like this. You create a video about your vacation, save it in a TiVo folder on your hard drive, and the software converts it into MPEG2 vido format. Then, TiVo will let you to send that video to your set-top box, and make it searchable by others on your 'private network.' They have to sign up for a 'Season Pass' for this.

Beyond showing off your kids to grandma, we could apply this concept to small businesses, or groups, opening up a new way for video file-sharing. Companies could set up their own 'knowledge channels' that would be available across their network.

Friday, November 17, 2006

The humble stick phone may one day change the way we collaborate and learn. I am working on an article featuring YFonGlobal, a media company that, among other things, enables organizations to create what it calls communications venues. You know, what Intranets were once supposed to be.

Because YFonGlobal uses VoIP as one of the many underlying applicatons, it also loads its proprietary collaborative application (Windstorm) onto stick phones. Got me thinking, that an organization could host a knowledge-sharing program accessible from anywhere. Students will simply plug their stick phone into a USB port on any PC, in a hotel or cybercafe, and have the capability to interact with each other, and even instructors using all the collaborative tools loaded onto it. This includes free VoIP calls, of course. Yes, YFonGlobal is also involved in distance learning.

Speaking of online education, Bill Lanphear of OdysseyWare, a curriculum and technology company, is convinced that online education will soon catch up with the always-on student with Wiki-like rich-media applications that foster collaboration. "Students and teachers are writing blogs, making podcasts and creating their own vodcasts," he says. They are "moving like swarms of fish working in unison as
teams, seeking experiential learning, and using all forms of technology
for social networking."

So you have to wonder what's keeping educators --and this includes companies - so far behind in knowledge sharing? Are they (a) suspicious that all these new media formats and sharing methods will detract from the content? Or (b) scared to death that administrators may never be able to keep up with all this new technology? Whatever the answer, Asking kids/employees to go to old media access points to engage in knowkledge sharing will not survive for much longer. Asking students to "park their cell phones, iPods, and
laptops outside the classroom" is ignoring reality --that "kids have woven
these devices into their personal learning spaces," says Lanphear.

On a related note, Pearson, the publishing/education company has announced plans to publish a business book titled "We are smarter than me" in wiki format.

The anti-Walmart site had been registered in April this year. The scandal about the WalmartingAcrossAmerica blog (domain had been registered on the 24th August 2006) broke in October in Businessweek. Note the question mark after the word Walmart. and of course the unhappy faces in the spoof header. There are other subtleties, such as the link 'Paid Supporters' (to counter the original site's 'Paid Critics' link, etc.

But the larger question for PR people is whether WalmartingAcrossAmerica was an astroturf campaign or a pathetic attempt to hide behind the curtain. More than being a fake grassroots attempt, it is a combination of a 'flog' (fake blog) and PR Puppetry (PRP) -meaning someone pulling the strings tries to hide from the audience. If you think about it, there is a lot of PRP that has gone on under the guise of advertising, too. We're going to see a lot of exposes like this soon, as the transparency effect takes hold.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

So there is life after the "468." Specifically the 468 X 60 banner ad. This was one of the topics at Ad:tech. Digitas' CCO Mark Beeching has a great observation, that the shift away from traditional banners is symptomatic of the move away from the interruptive model of advertising.

Good example of this is Intel's and IBM's use of allowing a banner ad to be a way to interact with customers. More specifically a real-time chat. Story in AdAge here.

Interesting factoid: Digitas created the first ever banner ad, 12 years ago.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

For all who've asked, Ad:tech, New York was a huge invigorating event. More on this later.

However, the keynote by David Lubars was very disappointing. Keynotes are supposed to set the tone of the day or event, and this one didn't. I'm a big fan of Lubars' work, so maybe I was expecting more. The Ad:tech blog, which refers to his standard BBDO messaging (about 'insight') stops short of saying so much. But quite frankly it was just another chit-chat --in the Barbara Walter's interview format-- that didn't say anything.

But Lubars almost deliberately understates the case for advertising. He came across as the kinda guy who's vehemently on the side of the customer, not the client. "What worries me, what keeps me awake at night," he said, "is that we can piss off a lot of people." he was referring to the fact that anything can be a 'medium' -even a street sign. Anything can be an 'ad.'

In the old days (when agency people rubbed their hands in glee at the possibility of putting logos on apples and people's foreheads) getting a brand noticed was a billable opportunity. Now? It's all about getting people involved. Or, to use the ad:tech word du jour, 'engaged.'

But Lubars didn't elaborate beyond showing some of the BBDO work. I threw him a trial balloon question to see if the 'engagement' virus had entered Mad Ave bloodstream, asking him if he saw Second Life a place where agencies would get creative. He practically dodged it. Another audience question got a softball answer. Was there a danger in losing control of the messaging, someone asked, speaking about marketers allowing customers to create or mash up their own commercials. "I don't know," Lubars replied. I don't know about you, but at a seminal event like this, I expect keynoters to say things that put a time-stamp on the state of the industry.

Having said that, Ad:tech was a remarkable event, choc-full of companies doing very specialized things in tracking, knowledge gathering, video, podcasting, social networking, mobile, and reporting. Many of them are risk takers, newly emerging from the eco-system of marketing, technology and advertising. After 2 days of listening to them and interviewing them, I was glad to have been here at an event that gives a lot more respectability to all of marketing and advertising.

Here are some broad themes I culled from the conference:"Conversations matter" ""Engagement is a symptom, not a cause" ""Make stuff shareable" ""Leave digital trails" ""We're smart, but the community is smarter"And, of course, "I don't know"

Saturday, November 11, 2006

So now that WOMMA has spoken about Edelman's 'violation' of its code of ethics with the fake Walmart blog (after much outrage from other professionals in this space) it's time to step back and see how practitioners can adopt to the code. Whether they are members of WOMMA or not.

WE could take a leaf from Dell (yes, that Dell) who has adopted the code. Their press release goes into great length about it's "formal ethics commitment" to

"ensure that blogs and other consumer-generated environments stay honest
and authentic. By holding their agencies to the same standards, Dell is
leading the charge to drive word of mouth ethics throughout the
marketing community."

I wish Edelman would lead the charge from the PR end, and take the issue head on, since they got this thing started. After a few posts in October, they've let it slide on their blog --it's called 'speak up,' after all! Debbie Weil wonders if they will.

My guess is they will, and are probably crafting a response right now. Ah, the suspense!

To draw a comparison, PRSA backed the FCC rules about VNR's to comply with 'sponsorship identification.' Maybe they should step up and execise similar muscle here.